Bring Something to the Table, Then Get Your MBA

For many people, though, matching the right time professionally with the right time at home can require juggling.

After about 11 years in the workforce, Sachin Shah decided to return to school, hoping to build his credentials and possibly change careers. "The day before I was to start my MBA at Johns Hopkins, my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child," said Shah, who lives in Silver Spring. "While I never gave any thought to postponing school, the idea of having a family while working and attending school was frightening."

He's about halfway through his degree now, earning good grades while holding down a demanding full-time job. A supportive employer is key, said Shah, director of marketing and communications for the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. "While there have been times I've read my corporate finance textbook to my daughter as a bedtime story, this has been the most interesting, exciting and stimulating time of my life," he said.

But all this talk of experience doesn't mean it's impossible to go straight to business school from undergrad -- or that it's necessarily a bad idea.

When Jeanne Jennings earned her MBA from Georgetown University in 1989, she was one of seven in her class who had enrolled directly from college. Counselors had warned her that she wouldn't get in, but she felt strongly that grad school was where she needed to be, not in an entry-level job. So she applied anyway.

"It was a little bit weird at first. I did feel kind of like this kid," Jennings, now an e-mail marketing consultant who lives in the District, said of working alongside her more-experienced classmates.

But her relative youth was an advantage in other ways, she said. "A lot of people in my class had families, children," she said. "I didn't have the pains of forgoing a salary."